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HANCOCK -- Hancock City Council met Wednesday for its first meeting after Tuesday's Midterm Election, where three new city councilors were elected and one was reelected. The council appointed frontrunner Sara Lahti to Whitney Warstler's old seat, after she resigned last month over family obligations.
Mayor Kurt Rickard made the motion to appoint Lahti as the first order of new business. City Manager City Babcock said, per the city's charter, the council needs to have a complete seven-seat body and needed to fill Warstler's vacant seat within thirty days.
Lahti, a business owner and founder of the Hancock Community Hub, won a seat on the council Tuesday with 995 votes, the most out of all the eight candidates. Lahti will serve on the council in a temporary, one meeting term. After that, she will be sworn in early next month, with the rest of the new councilors, for her full four-year term on Dec. 2.
Babcock said Lahti could be sworn in sooner, in case a special meeting is called.
"If there's anything that comes up prior to Nov. 18, we'll swear her in," she said.
City council also passed an amended budget, which took into considerations revenues and additional expenditures the city incurred after the budget was passed in June.
"I think the biggest thing for revenue is the property tax revenue has gone down from a couple different aspects," she said. "We had a Headlee reduction to our property tax millage. That impacted it from the original budget that was set out in the spring."
Babcock added some additional revenues in the positive came from some grants the city received in late summer and early fall. These include housing and business development grants, such as the MiSites Readiness grant.
For expenditures, Babcock noted one grant from the USDA made it so the city could purchase new police vehicles. However, Hancock is still running in a deficit. The city's budget ran at a $66,000 deficit when the original yearly budget was drafted and approved. According to Babcock, the deficit increased by $10,000.
"We have plenty of fund balance to cover that deficit," she said.
City council also approved finishing up contracts with the city's bids for work on its sewer on Prospect Street and paving work on Market Street.
The city is also allowing Hancock Public Schools' Industrial Engineering course to redevelop 711 W Water St for an experiential learning purpose. In addition, the Michigan State Housing and Development Authority's grant for 222 Hancock St is moving forward with the Hancock Housing Commission.
The next city council meeting will be Nov. 18, where Sara Lahti will be sworn in. According to Babcock, Lahti and the rest of the council will be sworn in Dec. 2, at the city's organizational meeting. Council positions, including Mayor, Mayor Protem and committee assignments will be confirmed then.